“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

The two young visitors walked beside the concrete wall, taking a close look at the fading graffiti from an era before their time. Beyond were more modern and colourful buildings and the hum of traffic and the dinging of trams and bicycle bells. But on this side they looked incredulous as they tried to imagine living behind this relic. Advertisements

My brother-in-law says he likes to take pictures of buildings, whereas his wife, my sister, takes pictures of people. I take pictures of people in front of buildings. I was reminded of this difference in photography approaches during my trip to the Art Deco-rich city of Napier in New Zealand.

Bratislava lures many visitors with its well protected historic old town, including grand 20th century buildings and medieval city towers, including St Michael’s Gate. But there is another side to Bratislava, for better or worse.

In Budapest, on the banks of the Danube, you get two cities in one: the hilly Buda on the west of the river, and Pest to the east. Of course, there is plenty on both sides to keep the traveller occupied, from Buda Castle, Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion up in the Buda hills over looking the city, to the […]

The riverboat from Siem Reap to Battambang, in Cambodia’s northwest, leaves early each morning and takes five to six hours squeezing through narrow waterways and wetlands and past myriad small villages, stopping at many to pick up or drop off passengers. It’s a photographer’s paradise.

The fog rolls in and covers the northern Laos riverside town of Nong Khiaw each morning during winter. You awake to the early morning sound of the first motorised fishing boat puttering its way down the Nam Ou river, and see it disappearing into the pea-soup thick mist. Somewhere out there are spectacular karst hills and cliffs, but they won’t appear again […]

It is one of the quintessential sights in all of Asia, yet the early morning tak bat ceremony in Luang Prabang, Laos, in which Buddhist monks collect their daily alms, has become more a feeding frenzy for the hungry 21st century tourism industry. Despite the annoyance of a throng of iPhone and iPad-wielding tourists intent on grabbing their photo no […]

Monks are the celebrities of Asia. Nothing completes a photograph that speaks of Asia like a monk or group of monks, either striding past a monument, walking down a street or serenely sitting in meditation in a wat, or under a tree, or by a Buddhist statue, incense sticks burning in the corner. With their bright orange, or safron robes, […]

One place springs to everyone’s mind when they think sunset in Luang Prabang. Phu Si is a 100m-high hill right in the middle of the historic centre of town, and everyone mentions it when you arrive. “You must go up Phu Si,” my hotel receptionist tells me. “It’s very good to see the sunset.” My breakfast waiter asks the next […]

Florence’s cathedral, or Duomo, has to be one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world. But for photographers its sheer size and location – sandwiched amid the narrow streets of the centre of Florence, present a holy problem. So what to do? My advice – and I don’t profess to getting good shots of this building despite many […]